Lake Villa, Antioch school districts to discuss consolidation

Two Lake County school districts are expected to hold a discussion about the potential for a merger in a little more than two months.

Citing the possibility of reduced costs and other benefits, Lake Villa Elementary District 41 and Antioch Elementary District 34 are the possible consolidation candidates. District 41 board members Monday night considered some October dates for the session but didn't make a formal decision.

"District 34 is receptive to a joint meeting," District 41 Superintendent John Van Pelt said.

Plans originally called for a June 12 meeting to talk about a merger, but scheduling conflicts caused officials to postpone. District 41 board President Ronald Vickers agreed when colleague Joanne Osmond said she doesn't want to wait too long for a joint meeting with District 34.

"We're talking almost a year since we started our overtures to them," Vickers said.

Districts 34 and 41 aren't the only ones in the suburbs where consolidation is a topic.

Talk of merging four DuPage County school districts has occurred in the past few weeks. Under the concept, West Chicago High School District 94 would merge with three elementary feeder systems.

In 2006, the Illinois State Board of Education published an analysis highlighting the benefits of fewer and larger school districts. The pluses include lower administrative costs, improved administrative leadership and a streamlined curriculum and course offerings.

With 870 public school districts, Illinois trails only Texas in that department. Of Illinois' 870 districts, 200 have just a single school, according to the state board of education.

Lake Villa Elementary has about 3,000 students attending kindergarten through eighth grade. District 41 draws from Lake Villa and Lindenhurst.

Antioch Elementary has roughly 3,200 kindergarten-through-eighth-grade pupils. District 34 serves Antioch.